More Beach Bumming

Friday, September 5, 2014

We were up and out of camp about 7:30 and went out to the spit to see what was happening.  The tide was running pretty hard and the wind was blowing from the ocean to the shore, read that “backward” and the spit was again pretty crowded.  Wilma and Betty again waited for the good parking spot to open up. When available, one of us can back up so we can look out the back door and watch the ship traffic. So Wilma got the camper into position and then talked to a guy coming out who said he had to run in and get more bait because he was doing good. After watching some of the traffic in and out, we hopped in the Rubble mobile to go to the local tackle shop for bait since Barney and Fred, the “fisherpersons” had only taken their spinning rods with them.  We would take the bait and their other rods out to them.  By the time we got back with the bait, the “fisherpersons” were waiting for us. They said there was too much seaweed and wind to make it enjoyable.

So off we went to the “Petie I” and had some lunch.  The ocean had calmed quite a bit compared to the last couple of days and it was beautiful out.    After lunch we headed out to Kampers West, in Warrenton, where we are spending the next couple of nights.  Kampers West is one of the dreaded RV parks we do about everything in our power to avoid. We didn’t have much choice if we wanted to stay in the area over the weekend. As it turned out, it wasn’t quite as bad as we thought. They had really good wi-fi, and we were back off the beaten path, but next door to four fishing slobs. Their campsite was a mess!

Once we were registered we went back out to the spit.   The crowd had thinned substantially and Fred and Barney found a spot to fish without any problems.   The wind was calm and the sun was out and it was really nice out.    The only down side to the day was that the fish were not biting at all.  Oh well, you can’t have it all, I guess.   After getting sufficiently torched, Fred and Barney returned to the campers. 

 We got situated in our sites at Kampers West and settled in for the night.   The campground is pretty close to a business where they shred trees for export to somewhere, probably China.   The shredder ran till around midnight.  Then they either shutdown the operation or we all went to sleep in spite of the noise.

Didn't get pix of our campsites

Fish and Chips

Thursday, September 4. 

Barney and Betty were having some problems with the Rubblemobile battery light coming on so wanted to have it looked at.  They went in search of the local Ford dealer and were told that their service department was booked out to the middle of the month with appointments, but if they could leave it for a day they might be able to look at it.  Another mechanic in Warrenton was in the same situation.   Soooo, the local, friendly, neighborhood Rubblemobile angel decided to turn the light out and fix the problem, at least temporarily.  THANK YOU!

Out on the spit the wind was blowing pretty hard and the tide was running strong so Fred and Barney didn’t stay out very long. 

Parked along the beach access road, heading out

Back at camp we all jumped into the Rubblemobile and headed for Astoria for lunch at the Bowpicker Fish and Chips. We were in line before they opened for the day, but there were still a half dozen or so people in front of us. It is a really popular place, and it was as good as we remembered.  It is just a block off the main drag through town, so while there we watched a lot of entries for the Seaside car show cruise into town.

We stopped at the registration building several times trying to get spots in Fort Stevens State Park for the weekend, but they are completely full.  

We did find a bait shop where Fred and Barney could buy some herring and we again headed for the spit to check on the fishing.   It was still pretty crowded and blowing hard.   The local fire people were concerned enough that they had people out to make sure there were no campfires on the spit.   The grass is pretty dry out there.   The fireman said they expected the same kind of winds tomorrow.

Windy enough for this Kite boarder or whatever it is called

Back in the campground, we had a campfire tonight and had hotdogs and a few marshmallows.   Dogs and shmallows, camping doesn’t get much better.

Dinner out on the windy beach

Beach Bums

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

We were up and out of the campground around 9am.  Fred and Barney headed for the spit to check out the salmon fishing.  There were a ton of fisherpersons parked at about 20 foot intervals along the shore for ½ to ¾ miles.  Some people were spinning and some were bait plunking and there were fish being brought in occasionally.

Giving it up

 Back along the access road, which is basically a one lane with a few wide spots along the way for parking, Betty and Wilma wait patiently for some of the cars to leave so we can get our favorite parking spot. There is a small area to turn around, but you have to back up over a pretty good size bump, and usually that means an assortment of spills inside the camper.  Just part of the fun!  

We also occasionally talk to some of the fisher people coming back in to see how the fish are running. They all have opinions of what to use for lures, and time of day to be out there. They also have some sob stories to tell, such as “we need a good rain to get the fish running” or “they haven’t really started to run yet” or “this is the tail end of the run”. You never know who to believe! And usually at least once during the day we walk out to see what is happening and sit on the beach with Fred and Barney for a while.

 Fred and Barney fished with spinning rigs for a while then decided to call it quits and maybe come back later.   A trip was made to Fred Meyer to look at fishing gear and to grab a few groceries.   In the afternoon we all went out to the Peter Iredale shipwreck (the “Petie I”).   The ocean was pretty rough, but it’s always nice to go out and look and just enjoy the beach.   The sunset was really gorgeous and Betty got some really nice pictures of it from the tower at the south jetty.

Incoming!

Great shot with the birds flying by

Circling Oregon

Site #1 at Bear Wallow campground

This is actually what the sign in the park looked like.

city park in Heppner, Oregon

On the Blue Mountain scenic byway

large dam in Heppner, Oregon

The school building in the park

Other interest in Heppner

End of out back roads, getting on I84

Mt Hood was out in all its glory

Monday, September 1, 2014 and Tuesday, September 2

Our plans for this trip look like we will pretty much circle the state of Oregon. Stay tuned to see when our plans will change - you know they will, or at least our history says they will.

Our first stop of the day was lunch at Taco Bell in La Grande. We also made a quick stop at Grocery Outlet just across the lot, and left the Flintstone mobile there for a quick trip up to Wallowa. The Rubbles wanted to get a couple of pictures of Dick's headstone. It was a pretty drive in through the hills and along the Grande Ronde river.

Then, to see some of Oregon we hadn't seen before and to get off the interstate, we went up a couple of exits and turned south on 244 that continued along the Grande Ronde river. It was more of a river on the Wallowa side, but still pretty. It looked like you could pretty much wade across most of it through this section. We checked out several campsites along the way and finally stopped maybe 10 miles out of Ukiah at a little campground called Bear Wallow. We took site #1 that was large enough and level enough for both us and paid a whopping $4.  We really do spend big!

We got a good night's sleep, and awoke to a chilling 37 degrees. We had sure pulled up all the blankets during the night, and had to break out the sweatshirts when we got up!

We decided to head on the the road and get breakfast. Like I said, it was only about 10 miles to Ukiah, but it is barely a blink of a berg, so we went on. Instead of going up 395 we went across the road and took the Blue Mountain Scenic Byway on over to Heppner. It was a scenic drive, but mostly just up in the hills with a lot of elk hunters. There were pickups parked anywhere they could get off the road, and anyone you passed on the road was decked out in cammo.

Heppner was a bigger town than we expected but we didn't see anywhere to eat. We stopped at a little city park where this sign was in front of a tree in the middle of the park road. Guess it must be a city joke why it is upside down. A lady there in the park said there was a cafe in the next town, Ione, so we went on. We did pass one place that didn't look like much, so continued on, eventually joining I84 again just east of  Arlington. We finally stopped at Cousins in The Dalles at noon our time. Betty and Fred ordered lunch while Wilma and Barney had omelets and a huge biscuit. We decided it was a decent place to eat. Could have just been that we were hungry by then!

The rest of the day was just freeway driving to Longview, Washington, then across the bridge to 30 on the Oregon side, on into Astoria and out to Hammond and Fort Stevens. We got camping spots through Thursday, and so far there are no spots open for the weekend, we don't know what will happen then.
Drove back into town to get fishing licenses, then settled in for the night.

I'll keep catching up to date, so check back.

Going Home

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

With a soft drizzle on the roof overnight, the sleeping was good. But around 6 a.m. it changed to flakes. What a wet mess when all we wanted to do was enjoy a nice trip! Maybe we will rethink this late October travel. Last year it was hurricane Sandy chasing us out, and this year we again got chased out by weather.

Barney talked to a guy in the rest area that had come down from Idaho, and he said all the high spots on the road were snowy. He was going across Donner, pulling a trailer, and just didn’t know what he was going into!

We went on a couple hours to Winnemucca where we stopped for some breakfast, then just hit the road home and didn’t run into any more weather.

It sounds like there was nasty weather at our back with damaging high winds and lots of snow, and we are happy to be out of there and home for a while.

It was a different kind of trip than our usual, and we only got a few park stamps. I’m sure it won’t be too long before one of us is getting the itch to go again.

What a difference a day makes!

Monday, October 28, 2013

The elevation change had done us some good. We were about 2500 feet lower than in Sequoia, and the precipitation on the campers overnight was rain. We were in a spot under the trees, and it dripped kind of heavy on the roofs overnight, but we were cozy. We always feel bad for the tenters in that kind of weather.

After some breakfast, we went back up the road about a mile to the Wawona VC where we got a couple of stamps in our books. The ranger there was less than encouraging! To go on into the Yosemite valley we had to go up a couple thousand feet, and it was snowing and the road was narrow with sheer drop offs. Chains or 4 wheel drive were required. Not a problem since we both have 4 wheel drive, but it did not sound inviting. To go back out the way we came in would only be about a thousand foot climb, but he had come in that way with 4 wheel drive and still spun out along the way.

We decided not to just stay put, but to back track and get out of this mess as soon as we could. We took it very slow, and passed several busy chain up areas for those going the opposite direction. The snow plows were busy on the park roads, and at the last chain up area we saw chains were required, with several state troopers to enforce them. It must have been getting a lot worse behind us, and we were happy to get out of it.

Back down in the valley, the sun was shining and it was warm, but we didn’t waste any time in shooting through the area and up over Donner pass. It was snowing there as well, and the sanding trucks were out spitting little rocks at us, but were keeping the roads cleared.

We at last stopped on the other side for something to eat, and then went on to the first rest area we found, but it was another 80 miles. Again driving after dark, but at least we knew where we were going, and it wasn’t snowing any more.

Sequoia National Park

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Our first stop this morning was the Foothills Visitor Center in Sequoia National Park. After getting our books stamped and looking around the center, we went across the street to the picnic area and fixed some breakfast. The sun felt great as we enjoyed eating outside. We soon had some company in the trees, and had four or five acorn woodpeckers wanting some of our food. They were somewhat aggressive and wished they could get inside the campers for some food.

After breakfast we went on up the road that is not advised for vehicles over 22 feet long. We are only a foot or two longer than that, and we were not prohibited, so on we went.  It wasn’t too scary because there were nice rock guardrails, and lots of trees so you couldn’t see any sheer drop off. It was a long slow grind to the top! There were many very tight switchbacks, but we took it slow and made it just fine. We used lots of turn outs to let traffic go by us and some just to stop and see the sights such as tunnel rock, where you could see the old road had gone through. That would have been the end of our travels without the road going around it.

Soon we came to the Giant Forest section of the park. There are several groves of sequoias throughout the park, but this is the most accessible.

We stopped at the Giant Forest museum and VC where the Sentinel tree is located. There is a line in the pavement that shows how far it would be to climb it. There were some interesting displays in the VC, one being a jar smaller than a quart mason jar that had 91,000 sequoia seeds in it. Another was a large wheel that shows how little chance there is for a sequoia to survive when it sprouts from a seed.

The sequoia is larger around, but the redwood trees are taller.

Continuing on down the road, we stopped at another VC for a stamp, but it was closed for the season, so we went on to Kings Canyon NP. We were very fortunate to be there the day we were because the next day they expected snow. While in the Kings Canyon VC we saw that forecast, and decided to get on down to a lower elevation while we had the chance, rather than find a camping spot up there. We did not take the one hour drive out along the canyon, but scurried on down the road toward Fresno.

We stopped at a Wendy’s in Clovis for something to keep us going, and then took 41 out toward Yosemite National Park. It was dark as we entered the park, and the sign at the entrance said Tioga pass was closed. We had hoped to get across the next morning. There was a campground about five miles down the road from the entrance, so we found that and did our best to wind up in a real campsite in the complete darkness! Not a light in the whole campground area, and really hard to do by headlights, but we got settled in and crashed. It had been a long day!